Closet Full of Cardboard is a place for baseball addicts to feed their obsession with cards.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Non Baseball Card collections.....

What is the strangest piece of memorabilia you have in your baseball collection? I am talking about anything that you consider related to or having to do with baseball cards that is not really a baseball card. I have a few different items that I am holding onto and would consider part of my card collection that are not really cards. Here is one of them:

Before my grandmother passed a few years ago, she called a very strange family meeting. We all gathered at my brothers house and sat around in the living room. My grandmother then told all of us that she was not going to live forever and that she wanted to see us split up the things she was holding onto that she considered of value. She then pulled out a stamp collection and several other items. She passed the stamps to one of my cousins and said take your pick, one sheet, or stamp at a time until they are all gone..... Wow was this ever weird.... I never knew she collected stamps. When the collection came to me I chose the sheet above. LEGENDS OF BASEBALL! I am sure it was not the most valuable, but I was also sure it would mean the most to me. As you can see in the scan, these were issued in 2000 and are .33 cent stamps....

I love the Robinson, Clemente, Paige, and Gehrig stamps on this sheet. They are really beautiful little pieces of artwork. Especially the way the stands are in a ghostly glow on the Paige card.

I would consider this a baseball card related item, and I keep it with my cards. It is no where near my strangest item, but not really cards. That family meeting went on to divide up coins, postcards, and even some jewelry. None of us was prepared for what happened that evening, it was very surreal, and I will never forget how sad I felt leaving the house that night. I am not sure if my grandmother was proud of the items and wanted to make sure everyone got their fair share, or whether she was tired of having them around and wanted to move them up the family tree early. What I do know is that every time I see something that she gave me that night, I can't help but wonder what were her reasons and why?